John Riskind
George Mason University, Psychology, Faculty Member
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Recent studies have shown that naturally occurring and experimentally induced affect states enhance the accessibility to retrieval of memories of life experiences that are congruent in valence with the affect state. Previous studies have... more
Recent studies have shown that naturally occurring and experimentally induced affect states enhance the accessibility to retrieval of memories of life experiences that are congruent in valence with the affect state. Previous studies have suggested that this memory bias results from the influence of affective processes on memory retrieval. In our study we manipulated mood state by having subjects read statements expressing positive or negative self-evaluative ideas or describing somatic states that often accompany positive or negative mood states. The somatic and self-evaluative statements had, in general, equally strong effects on mood state. In spite of this, however, the self-evaluative statements had a stronger impact on recall latencies for life experiences than did the somatic statements. Moreover, the impact of the self-evaluative, but not the somatic, statements on recall was found to be independent of the statements' effects on mood state. This suggests that the cognitions accompanying a mood-altering experience may have a substantial effect on the capacity of the mood state to influence memory retrieval.
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This study examines the role of social support and positive events as protective factors in suicide. Participants (n = 379) were administered measures of social support, life events, depressive symptoms, and suicide ideation. Results... more
This study examines the role of social support and positive events as protective factors in suicide. Participants (n = 379) were administered measures of social support, life events, depressive symptoms, and suicide ideation. Results indicated that (1) social support had a direct protective effect on suicide ideation, (2) social support and positive events acted as individual buffers in the relationship between negative events and suicide ideation, and (3) social support and positive events synergistically buffered the relationship between negative events and suicide ideation. Our results provide evidence that positive events and social support act as protective factors against suicide individually and synergistically when they co-occur.
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Research Interests: Sociology, Psychology, Gambling Studies, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Tourism, and 16 moreHumans, Impulse Control Disorders, Personality Assessment Inventory, Gambling, Female, Classification, Male, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Pathological Gambling, Aged, Prevalence, Middle Aged, Spectrum, Adult, Nosology, and Impulse Control
Abstract A social–cognitive approach is described that integrates social psychology and cognitive–behavioral approaches to help enrich the ability of applied clinicians to do effective therapeutic work. Therapists can humanize and empower... more
Abstract A social–cognitive approach is described that integrates social psychology and cognitive–behavioral approaches to help enrich the ability of applied clinicians to do effective therapeutic work. Therapists can humanize and empower clients by viewing symptoms of mental disorders as variations of everyday social-cognitive processes such as attributional processes or responses to powerful situational factors. Depression, anxiety, or even severe symptoms of schizophrenia—such as delusions and hallucinations—can be ...
Research Interests:
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Beck's cognitive theory of depression and anxiety suggests that there are three major classes of cognitive phenomena associated with affective disturbances: cognitions (or automatic thoughts), schemas,... more
Beck's cognitive theory of depression and anxiety suggests that there are three major classes of cognitive phenomena associated with affective disturbances: cognitions (or automatic thoughts), schemas, and logical errors. The present studies focused on the properties of “cognitions.” We first tested the hypothesis, drawn from Beck's theory, that the cognitions associated with depression would focus on loss, whereas the cognitions associated with anxiety would focus on threat of loss. We found that, as expected, threat ...
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Research Interests: Mental Health, Depression, Cancer, Quality of life, Treatment, and 17 morePublic Health, Anxiety, Humans, Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, Female, Male, Social Environment, Clinical Sciences, New York, Aged, Middle Aged, Adult, ANXIETY, Cross sectional Study, Cohort Studies, General Hospital Psychiatry, and Sickness Impact Profile
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Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is associated with some of the worst impairments observed among the anxiety disorders and is rated as the tenth leading cause of disability by the World Health Organization (WHO. l996). Recent research... more
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is associated with some of the worst impairments observed among the anxiety disorders and is rated as the tenth leading cause of disability by the World Health Organization (WHO. l996). Recent research advances have increased our understanding of the cognitive phenomenology of OCD, as well as its informationprocessing correlates, and approaches to assessment and treatment. While much research has used correlational data based on questionnaire responses, issues ...
Experiments using the Velten Mood Induction Procedure (VMIP) have provided support for cognitively based theories of depression, which assign a major role to self-devaluative cognition in initiating and maintaining a depressed state.... more
Experiments using the Velten Mood Induction Procedure (VMIP) have provided support for cognitively based theories of depression, which assign a major role to self-devaluative cognition in initiating and maintaining a depressed state. Frost, Graf, and Becker (1979), however, claim that self-devaluative components of the VMIP do not lower mood or otherwise mimic depression, but that the elements of the VMIP that suggest depression-related somatic states do. The present study found that both components of the VMIP have ...
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There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that cognitive vulnerabilities to depression or anxiety may lead individuals to generate negative interpersonal life events. However, there has been no study to date that examines the... more
There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that cognitive vulnerabilities to depression or anxiety may lead individuals to generate negative interpersonal life events. However, there has been no study to date that examines the effects of co-occurring vulnerabilities to depression and anxiety. In a sample of 304 participants, we examined the potential interaction of co-occurring negative cognitive style, a vulnerability to depression and looming cognitive style, vulnerability to anxiety. Results indicate that co-occurring cognitive vulnerabilities synergistically predict higher levels of negative interpersonal life events six weeks later, even when controlling for initial levels of stressful life events and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Thus, co-occurring vulnerabilities may have stronger stress generating effects than would be expected from the additive effects of each vulnerability considered separately. This finding highlights the importance of examining cognitive vul...
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The results of this study support the notion that pathological gamblers drawn from the community would score higher on all three scores from the YBOCS than light gamblers. Consistent with hypotheses, pathological gamblers (lottery and... more
The results of this study support the notion that pathological gamblers drawn from the community would score higher on all three scores from the YBOCS than light gamblers. Consistent with hypotheses, pathological gamblers (lottery and scratch ticket) reported more obsessions, compulsions, and avoidance behavior than the light gamblers, and also reported having more urges to engage in injurious behaviors to themselves and others. These findings provide evidence that pathological gambling falls in a spectrum or family of disorders which have obsessive-compulsive disorder at its core. These findings support McElroy, Hudson, Philips, et al.'s (1993) suggestions of similarities between OCD and Impulse Control Disorders, and extend Blaszczynski (1999) findings of overlap between pathological gamblers and OCD in a treatment population. Heavy gamblers also reported significantly more hoarding symptoms and compulsive buying than light gamblers. More research in this area may show further...
Research Interests: Sociology, Psychology, Gambling Studies, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Tourism, and 16 moreHumans, Impulse Control Disorders, Personality Assessment Inventory, Gambling, Female, Classification, Male, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Pathological Gambling, Aged, Prevalence, Middle Aged, Spectrum, Adult, Nosology, and Impulse Control
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is associated with some of the worst impairments observed among the anxiety disorders and is rated as the tenth leading cause of disability by the World Health Organization (WHO. l996). Recent research... more
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is associated with some of the worst impairments observed among the anxiety disorders and is rated as the tenth leading cause of disability by the World Health Organization (WHO. l996). Recent research advances have increased our understanding of the cognitive phenomenology of OCD, as well as its informationprocessing correlates, and approaches to assessment and treatment. While much research has used correlational data based on questionnaire responses, issues ...
Picture a stockbroker in a window of a skyscraper at the dawn of the crash of'29. He jumps out. Such a scene is not fanciful of course, and is one of the haunting images that our society retains about the... more
Picture a stockbroker in a window of a skyscraper at the dawn of the crash of'29. He jumps out. Such a scene is not fanciful of course, and is one of the haunting images that our society retains about the breaking onset of the Great Depression. What mental events lead people of proven success and ability to carry out such desperate acts? What is their phenomenological world? In considering the haunting image of this suicidal stockbroker, we might picture an individual who is agitated, motivated to escape rapidly rising ...
The aim of this study was to test whether social looming cognitive style accounts for the predictive association between early maladaptive schema domains and social anxiety. We predicted that early maladaptive schema domains would predict... more
The aim of this study was to test whether social looming cognitive style accounts for the predictive association between early maladaptive schema domains and social anxiety. We predicted that early maladaptive schema domains would predict the increase of social anxiety over time and that social looming would act as a mediator between schema domains and social anxiety. A three-wave longitudinal design was used. The participants (N=471, 56.95% women) were Spanish adolescents and young adults aged between 16 and 25 years old (Mage=17.81, SDage=3.19). The results showed that three schema domains (impaired autonomy and performance, impaired limits, and other-directedness) predicted the increase in social anxiety and that LCS for social threat acted as a mediator between other-directedness and social anxiety at T3. These results are important to improve the knowledge of the cognitive mechanisms that are involved in the occurrence and development of social anxiety.
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The looming cognitive style (LCS) is a specific putative cognitive vulnerability to anxiety but not to depression. LCS is assessed by the Looming Maladaptive Style Questionnaire (LMSQ-R), which assesses a tendency to generate, maintain,... more
The looming cognitive style (LCS) is a specific putative cognitive vulnerability to anxiety but not to depression. LCS is assessed by the Looming Maladaptive Style Questionnaire (LMSQ-R), which assesses a tendency to generate, maintain, and attend to internally generated scenarios of threats as rapidly increasing and headed in one's direction. This study investigated the structure, measurement invariance across subsamples, concurrent validity, consistency, and stability of a Spanish translation of the LMSQ-R. LMSQ-R was examined in a large sample of Spanish students (n = 1,128, 56.47% women). A subsample of 675 was followed-up six months later. The participants also completed measures of social anxiety, generalized anxiety, and depression. The results provide evidence from factor analyses confirming two second-order factors (social and physical threat). Multiple-group analysis indicated the measurement invariance of the model for men and women and for groups that displayed clini...
Research Interests: Psychology, Anxiety Disorders, Psychometrics, Depression, Cognition, and 18 morePrincipal Component Analysis, Imagination, Adolescent, Disease susceptibility, Anxiety, Spain, Humans, Female, Male, Young Adult, Follow-up studies, Attitude, Questionnaires, Adult, Sex Factors, Psicothema, ANXIETY, and Psychological Models
Considerable debate has been waged in the field about whether anxiety and depressive cognitions can be discriminated, and whether they can discriminate anxiety and depression symptoms. The current study examined a standard measure of... more
Considerable debate has been waged in the field about whether anxiety and depressive cognitions can be discriminated, and whether they can discriminate anxiety and depression symptoms. The current study examined a standard measure of cognitions, the Cognitions Checklist (CCL) that has yielded mixed results when tested in older age samples. A community sample of older adults (N=169; mean age=75.70; SD=8.55) completed a series of self-report questionnaires, including the CCL as well as measures of anxiety and depression symptoms. The CCL, which yielded a three-factor structure rather than the typical two-factor structure, did not cognitively discriminate anxiety from depression. The results have implications for understanding cognitive factors that differentiate between anxiety and depression symptoms in older adults and suggest the importance of assessing cognitions that are tailored to the concerns of this population.
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Research Interests:
Beck's cognitive theory of depression and anxiety suggests that there are three major classes of cognitive phenomena associated with affective disturbances: cognitions (or automatic thoughts), schemas,... more
Beck's cognitive theory of depression and anxiety suggests that there are three major classes of cognitive phenomena associated with affective disturbances: cognitions (or automatic thoughts), schemas, and logical errors. The present studies focused on the properties of “cognitions.” We first tested the hypothesis, drawn from Beck's theory, that the cognitions associated with depression would focus on loss, whereas the cognitions associated with anxiety would focus on threat of loss. We found that, as expected, threat ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Looming cognitive styles (LCS) bias the velocity of potential threats and have been implicated in anxiety and depression vulnerability. This study aims to explore their contribution to impaired quality of life (QOL), beyond that of... more
Looming cognitive styles (LCS) bias the velocity of potential threats and have been implicated in anxiety and depression vulnerability. This study aims to explore their contribution to impaired quality of life (QOL), beyond that of depression and anxiety, in a cancer cohort. In a cross-sectional design, an ambulatory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cohort completed a psychological battery that included the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories, the SF-36 Health Survey, the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACT), the Looming Cognitive Style Questionnaire (LCSQ), and the Looming Cancer measure. The Looming Cancer measure correlated significantly with overall QOL (FACT-G, p = 0.005). This effect was largely due to the contribution of emotional QOL (Mental Component Score: SF-36, p = 0.001; FACT-emotional, p = 0.001) and functional QOL (FACT-functional, p = 0.001). Looming, unlike anxiety and depression, did not correlate with a worse physical QOL (Physical Component Score: SF-36, FACT-physical). Looming did not impact on social QOL. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that looming predicted 5.4% of the varience on the FACT-emotional, 5.1% on the Mental Component Score (SF-36), and 9.3% on the mental health subscale (SF-36), above and beyond the varience predicted by a constellation of psychosocial factors (including age, marital status, education, income) and the combined effect of depression and anxiety. LCS predicts worse emotional and functional QOL, above and beyond the contribution of anxiety, depression, and other psycho-social variables. This suggests that it makes a unique contribution to a worse QOL. Nevertheless, the looming construct still remains primarily a research tool in psycho-oncology at this time.
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Experiments using the Velten Mood Induction Procedure (VMIP) have provided support for cognitively based theories of depression, which assign a major role to self-devaluative cognition in initiating and maintaining a depressed state.... more
Experiments using the Velten Mood Induction Procedure (VMIP) have provided support for cognitively based theories of depression, which assign a major role to self-devaluative cognition in initiating and maintaining a depressed state. Frost, Graf, and Becker (1979), however, claim that self-devaluative components of the VMIP do not lower mood or otherwise mimic depression, but that the elements of the VMIP that suggest depression-related somatic states do. The present study found that both components of the VMIP have ...
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Page 1. RISKIND ET AL. Looming Cognitive Style THE LOOMING COGNITIVE STYLE: A COGNITIVE VULNERABILITY FOR ANXIETY DISORDERS JOHN H. RISKIND George Mason University NATHAN L. WILLIAMS University of Arkansas THOMAS E. JOINER, JR. ...
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We appreciate the comments of both Rector (2006), and Lewine and Walker (2006), since these offer us the possibility of elaborating as well as clarifying some of our key points (Riskind, Bombardier, & Ayers, 2006). First,... more
We appreciate the comments of both Rector (2006), and Lewine and Walker (2006), since these offer us the possibility of elaborating as well as clarifying some of our key points (Riskind, Bombardier, & Ayers, 2006). First, we fully share Rector's cognitive clinical perspective that it is not just an individual's symptoms (eg, his/her hallucinations), but the person's beliefs about the meaning of the symptoms that are important in schizophrenia (eg, Beck, in press; Beck & Rector, 2000). Our social–cognitive approach modestly adds the ...
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Abstract A social–cognitive approach is described that integrates social psychology and cognitive–behavioral approaches to help enrich the ability of applied clinicians to do effective therapeutic work. Therapists can humanize and empower... more
Abstract A social–cognitive approach is described that integrates social psychology and cognitive–behavioral approaches to help enrich the ability of applied clinicians to do effective therapeutic work. Therapists can humanize and empower clients by viewing symptoms of mental disorders as variations of everyday social-cognitive processes such as attributional processes or responses to powerful situational factors. Depression, anxiety, or even severe symptoms of schizophrenia—such as delusions and hallucinations—can be ...
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Abstract 1. Strenger has brought up several interesting points with regard to the existential and philosophical foundations of the concepts of the looming vulnerability model of anxiety. He denotes the convergence between a rich... more
Abstract 1. Strenger has brought up several interesting points with regard to the existential and philosophical foundations of the concepts of the looming vulnerability model of anxiety. He denotes the convergence between a rich existential and philosophical perspective, as well as modernism in poetry and art, and the precepts of the model. Moreover, his commentary stimulates several interesting suggestions for future inquiry and research on looming vulnerability and looming vulnerability reduction in psychotherapy. One such ...
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Abstract 1. This article describes clinical strategies derived from the looming vulnerability model (Riskind, 1997a; Riskind & Williams, 2005).“Looming vulnerability” is a phenomenon involving anxiety and behavioral... more
Abstract 1. This article describes clinical strategies derived from the looming vulnerability model (Riskind, 1997a; Riskind & Williams, 2005).“Looming vulnerability” is a phenomenon involving anxiety and behavioral urgency marked by dynamic perceptions of a threatening stimulus as moving swiftly toward oneself in time or space. The looming vulnerability model integrates the cognitive conceptualization of anxiety with a disparate collection of ethological and developmental observations and social–cognitive and emotion research findings. ...
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The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Hamilton Psychiatric Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) were used with 300 outpatients diagnosed with DSM-III major depression disorders. A principal-components analysis was performed on the... more
The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Hamilton Psychiatric Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) were used with 300 outpatients diagnosed with DSM-III major depression disorders. A principal-components analysis was performed on the intercorrelations among the 21 BDI and 24 HRSD symptoms. Three orthogonal components were found and interpreted as reflecting differences in self-report and clinical rating methods for measuring the severity of depression. The importance of using both self-reports and ...
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The reformulated model of learned helplessness assumes that attributional style has its impact on depression in part through the intermediary effect of pessimistic or negative expectations about the occurrence of future outcomes. A... more
The reformulated model of learned helplessness assumes that attributional style has its impact on depression in part through the intermediary effect of pessimistic or negative expectations about the occurrence of future outcomes. A possible logical next step in testing the model is to measure jointly attributions and expectations and to examine their combined (interactive) contributions. We used a short-term longitudinal design to examine whether attributional style works in combination with other factors, such as expectations, to predispose individuals to depression. Consistent with the initial theoretical analysis, the interaction of attributional style and expectations predicted depression on the Beck Depression Inventory 6 weeks later. We also found that attributional style predicted depression 6 weeks later in interaction with initial level of depression. These findings support our confluence hypothesis, which assumes that vulnerability factors can combine interactively and qualify the effects of attributional style. These interaction-effect findings have implications for currently popular cognitive theories of depression and for previous research on vulnerability to depression that has examined only the effects of single cognitive variables (such as attributional style) considered alone. Further study is also necessary to determine the nature of the overlap of the effects of expectation and initial level of depression.